Patriotism as Creative (Counter-)Conduct of Russian Fashion Designers, Consumer Culture Theory (Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 20), ed. by D. Bajde , D. Kjeldgaard & R. W. Belk, 151-168. (original) (raw)
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This article explores the multiplicity of discoursive articulations of patriotism in Russia in the context of "patriotic frenzy" observed in the country and reached in fashion. Patriotism is considered a socially constructed, multi-layered category defined in relation to nationalism and cosmopolitanism. To explore the interpretations of patriotism, this research uses the concept of governmentality of Michel Foucault and proposes the concept of "patriotic dispositif", which conducts the creative conduct of fashion designers by encouraging them to follow patriotic fashion. At the same time, fashion designers can either support it or have freedom for counter-conduct, which is manifested in cosmopolitan, cultural and economic patriotic discourses. The article is based on nineteen in-depth interviews and secondary data analyzed with the use of post-structuralist discourse theory.
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Notions of Tradition and Modernity in the Construction of National Fashion Identities
There continues to prevail a false dichotomy in current fashion scholarship between so-called static traditional dress associated with the non-West and dynamic modern fashion associated with the West. This dichotomy is especially the result of a largely artificial disciplinary separation between the anthropology of dress and fashion theory on the one hand and a Eurocentric hegemonic fashion discourse on the other hand, that aims to preserve the boundary between the West/Rest and as such, to both protect its position of power and ensure the maintenance of a conceptual Other on which to rely for self-definitional purposes (Niessen 2003). This paper is part of an ongoing cross-regional interdisciplinary comparative research project that aims to contest this dichotomy through comparing western with non-western case-studies from a dynamic non-Eurocentric point of view, focussing rather on similarities and intersectionalities than oppositions, using a combination of anthropology of dress, fashion theory and cultural studies discourses. The research’s main hypothesis is that cultural anxiety, as a main stimulator for an endless and repetitive cycle of change (Davis 1992, Kaiser 2012), is the principal common constituent of both traditional and fashionable dress. The research argues that both clothing styles are equally used in a continuous invention and construction of national narratives that inevitably and constantly relate to global issues of identity, production and consumption (Paulicilli and Clark 2009). It argues that national fashion identities have more to do with categorical thinking—the drive to classify and compare in order to develop a sense of identity–—than with distinguishable cultures or characteristics (Kaiser 2012). In the same way that cultures have become brands and cities have become logos, national fashion identities have become ideologies, e.g. conscious or unconscious beliefs, attitudes, habits, feelings and assumptions (Kawamura 2004).
In this introductory essay the guest editors provide a critical account of the concepts of patriotism and consumption. Whilst nationalist sentiments are on the rise in many countries in the world, there has been little research on citizen participation outside the conventional politics of the nation-state. There is even less scholarship on consumption and patriotism and digital media; and finally, there has been little work emerging in relation to the countries of the region. Therefore, the authors explain how this special issue of Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media aims to fill in these gaps. They also present their own framework for thinking about patriotic (non)consumption. They argue that patriotism thrives in human agency, especially emotions, and can play a central role in mobilization processes and identity construction. It produces attachments located in the fantasies of the societal cohesion, unity and a sense of belonging.
Patriotism as a value: brand positioning based on commodification
The article reviews a cross-scientific concept of commodification as a process of consistent extension of consumer mechanism to formerly non-consumer spheres in relation to branding sphere. Commodification is studied by authors as a brand promotion marketing technique within positioning strategy. Brand advertizing using " patriotism " value served as a material of research. Patriotism is regarded as a core value based on the underlying " we and they " identity mechanism undergoing transformation in the course of personality socialization. Patriotism is manifested through love of native land, identity with the nation and readiness to protect fellow citizens' interests. At the same time, patriotism by no means rules out, and, on the contrary, implies, basic respect for otherness and absence of prejudice against a " stranger ". In other words, the tendency to its ethnic and national group unconditional favoritizing and outspoken xenophobia are the indicators of identity basic need under-socialization and are indicative of a certain defect in this process. Patriotism plays a crucial role in forming national consciousness, ensuring identity, unity and positivity of perception of its ethnic and national group. We believe that patriotism as a core value inevitably becomes a part of mass consciousness and mass culture. We believe that there is a considerable gap between the contents of patriotism and forms of its manifestation in elite areas (culture and art, science and politics) and mass culture areas which generally include advertizing and marketing. In the mass culture, patriotism is often exploited to substitute spiritual values with material or political interests. Such commercial use of patriotism value is based on the commodification phenomenon. Commodification describes and explains the process of consistent extension of consumer mechanism to formerly non-consumer spheres. Sports, politics, art, army, education, medicine, sexual relations and even human body (for example, human organ market creation) became modern consumption objects. Thus, commodification appears to be the systematic process of reification, extrapolation of consumer mechanism to formerly non-marketable social areas, or the transfer of benefits which